The Walworth Patricide.

The name Walworth was an old and venerable one in the state of New York. William Walworth arrived there from London in 1689; during the American Revolution, Benjamin Walworth fought in the Battle of White Plains; Reuben Hyde Walworth, in 1828, was named Chancellor of New York, the state’s highest judicial office. But in 1873 the name Walworth was forever tarnished when Frank Walworth murdered his father Mansfield Walworth.

Mrs. Sarah Rhodes.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Mrs. Sarah Rhodes.

“This remarkable woman, who sports a moustache, is accused of murdering Farmer Blizzard, a married man, and who seemed to be infatuated with this woman.  He called upon her at Greenville, Va., where she resided on the evening of January 28, and took her riding in his buggy. At a lonely spot while crossing a bridge, the woman first shot the farmer and then hacked his body with an axe. She then dragged him from the wagon and threw his body over the bridge to the river below.”

 

---

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

Guest Blogger: ExecutedToday.com

 

ExecutedToday.com recently celebrated its 2,000th consecutive day posting execution stories from all times and places—that’s every day since October 31, 2007. You’d think they would run out of material but there is no end in sight.

 

This is the second guest post from ExecutedToday.com and once again it is an honor to include one of their gallows tales on Murder by Gaslight. This one is a hanging in Nebraska for a murder that was never committed.

1887: William Jackson Marion, who’d be pardoned 100 years later

Originally posted on ExecutedToday.com March 25th, 2011 by Headsman
         
On this date in 1887, William Jackson Marion was executed in Nebraska for the murder of his best

friend, John Cameron.

Jackson had always upheld his innocence and his ignorance of Cameron’s fate; he was the picture of “utmost coolness” on the scaffold, declaring only “that I am a sinner, the same as other men. I have made no confession and have none to make. Go to the court dockets and see where men have been tried and acquitted and compare my case with them.”

And then, as given by the Gage County Democrat, the first, last, and only man hanged in Beatrice “stood erect upon the trap-door while his hands and feet were bound, the black cap drawn over his face, and the noose adjusted,” the trap sprung, and after a thousand-plus people had taken the opportunity to view this infamous corpse, it was buried in the potter’s field.

---

It was then 15 years since young “Jack” Marion and John Cameron had hauled out from Grasshopper Falls, Kansas, looking for work on a railroad.

Somewhere in the wilderness, John Cameron disappeared, and Marion returned to his mother-in-law’s saying his buddy had left. Marion’s whereabouts fade; he’s supposed to have drifted in Indian country: was it flight? It sure looked that way a year later, when a body turned up with clothes that matched Cameron’s … and bullet wounds in the head.

Settling an Old Feud.

Little Murders

 

(From New York Herald, New York, New York, October 20, 1885)
 

Settling an Old Feud.

 

A serious stabbing affray occurred in a lonely portion of South Orange, N. J., on Sunday night, which will probably result in a murder. About eleven o’clock on Sunday night Morris Foran, of South Orange, entered the tavern kept by Mrs. Mary Briarton on the Ridgewood road. James Tanzey, of Milburn; William P. Brown and Ira Smith, of South Orange, entered the barroom a little later, and, having drunk some whiskey, were about to leave, when Tanzey saw Foran and scowled. His companions left the saloon, but he stood in the doorway until Mrs. Briarton went into a back room. He then walked over to Foran, and inquired in a surly tone, “Are you Morris Foran?”

Mrs. Briarton could not hear the answer, but in a minute she heard a scuffle and heard Foran exclaim, “I am stabbed!”

Rushing into the room, she saw Tanzey and Foran struggling on the floor. Tanzey had a large clasp-knife in his hand and Foran was making desperate efforts to wrest it from him. He was covered with blood, and after shaking off his antagonist by a desperate effort, he fainted. Fanzey was about to rush upon him again when Brown and Smith seized him and dragged him from the saloon.

Dr. Chandler was summoned, and when he arrived he found that Foran was terribly wounded. There was a gash in his stomach five inches long, from which the entrails protruded. He was moved to Memorial Hospital in Orange, where he lingers in a critical condition.

Justice of the Peace O’Reilly arrested Tanzey, whom he found on the Valley road. On being asked the cause of the stabbing, Tanzey, who bore two slight cuts on his face, replied that it was a woman affair. Becoming excited, he waved his fist in the air and exclaimed:--

“I’ve been waiting two years for this chance.”

“For what chance?” asked the Justice, “To stab Foran or go to jail?”

“Go to jail,” replied Taney quickly.

The prisoner formerly kept a saloon in Millburn, but lately he was employed as a mason in Short Hills. It is rumored that two years ago he and Foran quarreled about a woman. Foran is a contractor and has a wife and three children.

 

---

New York Herald, New York, New York, October 20, 1885

The Woman in Black.

A prominent California legislator was sitting with his wife and son on board the Oakland-San Francisco ferryboat El Capitain the evening of November 3, 1870. They did not notice the woman, dressed entirely in black, wearing a broad brimmed black hat with a black veil covering her face, as she approached them. From the folds of her dress the woman pulled a derringer and shot the man in the chest. The family recognized the woman in black then; it was Laura Fair and she was finally ending her tumultuous affair with Alexander P. Crittenden.

Insurance Murders.

Life insurance has always provided incentive to murder. Depending on the state of their relationship, the beneficiary may come to view the insured as more valuable dead than alive. In the nineteenth century, life insurance fraud was much harder to detect than it is today. There is no telling how many times it succeeded, but here are some notable failures:
:

	William Udderzook - 1873 William Udderzook and Winfield Goss devised a plan to defraud an insurance company by passing off an unidentified corpse as Goss. Fearing the Goss would give them away, Udderzook made sure that Goss would never be seen alive.
	Benjamin Hunter - 1878 When Benjamin Hunter loaned $12,000 to John Armstrong, he required Armstrong to take out a life insurance policy in Hunter’s name to secure the loan. The amount of the policy was $26,000 and Hunter saw an opportunity to make a sizeable profit.
	The Blue Eyed Six - 1878 Six Pennsylvania men, down on their luck, thought they could make some easy money by insuring the life of Joseph Raber, an elderly recluse. They grew tired of waiting for Raber to die and decided to take matters into their own hands.
	Sarah Jane Robinson- 1886 Sarah Jane Robinson had a tendency to live beyond her means but she had a simple solution to her debt problems—she would insure the lives of her family members then poison them.
	Harry Hayward - 1894 Harry Hayward was a handsome rogue with a very persuasive personality. He persuaded Catherine Ging to take out an insurance policy in his name, then persuaded Claus Blixt to murder her.

Thomas Riley.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

Thomas Riley.

"At an early hour on Sunday, Dec. 12, 1886, Robert Coleman was murdered by Thomas Riley, at Greensburg, Pa. Riley worked in the Crab Tree Mines where Coleman had been previously employed as a Deputy Sheriff, and against whom Riley had taken a great dislike. On their exit from a restaurant, where they had been together, apparently as friends, Riley struck Coleman on the head with some blunt instrument, killing him instantly. He was immediately arrested."

 

---

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

The Hart-Meservey Murder.

The winter of 1877 Captain Luther Meservey went to sea leaving his wife Sarah alone in their home in the village of Tenant’s Harbor, Maine. When Sarah was found strangled in her own home, the people of this small but close-knit community were terrified at the thought of a killer in their midst. Nathan Hart, a neighbor of the Meserveys was tried and convicted on evidence so circumstantial that many in town refused to accept the verdict. The controversy persisted for generations and to this day, the murder of Sarah Meservey is considered one of Maine’s great unsolved crimes.

The Murder of Chong Ong.

Little Murders

 

(From New York Herald-Tribune, New York, New York, November 21, 1885)

The Murder of Chong Ong.

 

A Cuban Charged with the Crime.

Arrested on the Testimony of a Boy who Saw the Chinaman Stabbed.

 

A tall Cuban, whose dark skin showed that he had negro blood in his veins, was locked up at Police Headquarters yesterday, charged with the murder of Chong Ong, the Chinaman who kept a restaurant at Spring and Wooster sts., under the name of Antonio Solao. The arrest of the Cuban was based on evidence which was kept secret by the police after the discovery of the murder, which occurred on November 2. The police were first informed of the crime by a vender who found the mutilated body of Chong Ong lying on the floor of the basement restaurant. It was believed that the Chinaman had been killed by a thief who also was a Chinaman. For a time the police were not able to ascertain that there had been any witnesses of the crime, and the indications were that Ong was murdered in the basement. On the evening of the murder, however, Captain McDonnell was informed that George Manz, a boy who was employee in the store of William Schimper & Co. at No. 138 Wooster st., had been a witness of the murder and could identify the murderer.

The Black-McKaig Homicide.

As children, Harry and Myra Black were playmates with William McKaig, but as adults McKaig did not view the Blacks as his equals—the McKaigs were wealthy, the Blacks were not. As events transpired, their relationships grew to resemble a melodrama where the rich but unscrupulously evil villain seduces and ruins the innocent maiden. Her betrayal is avenged by her equally upright brother. But will his goodness be pure enough to save him from the gallows?

William Agnew.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

William Agnew.

"Of all the cold blooded villains, this is one of the worst. Wm. Agnew lived in Palyra, N. Y. [sic] He went home with his wife one night from a ball, and after some angry words, picked up a rocking chair and dealt her several blows on the head, crushing in her skull. He then carried her up-stairs to bed and she died that night. He slept in the same room with the murdered woman and remained about the house for several days until the body was discovered."

 

---

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

"Murdered by a Maniac” Guest Post by James Schmidt

I am pleased to welcome guest blogger, James M. Schmidt to Murder by Gaslight. James writes about the American Civil War is the author of several books, including Galveston and the Civil War: An Island City in the Maelstrom. An article of his was recently published in The New York Times for their “Disunion” series on the Civil War. James also blogs about the Civil War from a medical point of view at Civil War Medicine (and Writing).

Today James will be taking a break from the battlefield, but not from violence, as he relates a fascinating tale of murder in Connecticut from the 1850s:

 

Murdered by a Maniac

by James M. Schmidt

 

The epitaph on a headstone in Sperry Cemetery in Bethany, Connecticut, bears witness to a horrible crime committed on New Year’s Day 1856:

In Memory of
Ichabod Umberfield
who was murdered by a maniac
Jan’y 1, 1856

The grim prose is actually only a hint of a week’s worth of violence and madness that began on Christmas Eve 1855 and took three innocent lives.  It offers a trail of treasure in primary material and engaging stories for anyone who takes the time to investigate the tale.  It also crosses multiple subjects of interest to people who enjoy studying the 1800s: cults, Spiritualism, mental illness, journalism, court proceedings, incarceration, class distinctions, and much more.

Mr. Umberfield was murdered by Charles Sanford, who had also killed another man, Enoch Sperry, earlier that day.  News of the grisly killings was reported throughout the area and then across the country.  Typical was this notice in the Hartford Daily Courant on January 3, 1856:

Terrible Affair with a Maniac

Two Men Murdered!

GREAT EXCITEMENT IN WOODBRIDGE.

The father of Hon. N. D. Sperry, Secretary of State, and a farmer, named Ichabod Umberfield, were cruelly and savagely killed by a lunatic named Charles Sanford, in the town of Woodbridge, on Tuesday… He seems to have accidently encountered Mr. Sperry, in his sleigh, about a half mile from the main road, on what is called the Shunpike, about 11 o'clock A. M.; to have made an assault on Mr. Sperry; dragged him from his sleigh … Mr. Sperry was struck first on the right temple with the head of the axe; then another blow just above the right ear, both of which produced fractures of the skull. He was then struck with the edge of the axe on the neck, the blow entering just under the chin, which it wounded and nearly severed his head from his body.

Sanford was apparently driven mad by the murder of a relative a week earlier, and that is an even more interesting story!

The Massachusetts Borgia.

The Order of Pilgrim Fathers was a Massachusetts social group whose chief purpose was to provide cheap life insurance for working-class men and women. In the summer of 1886 the Order became suspicious of one of their members, Mrs. Sarah Jane Robinson, whose son William was on his death bed just six months after the death of her daughter Lizzie. When officers of the Order of Pilgrim Fathers expressed their concerns to the Chief of Police, they learned that Mrs. Robinson was already under investigation for the death of her nephew just a few weeks earlier. In each case the cause of death was arsenic poisoning and when the full tally of Mrs. Robinson’s poison murders was revealed, the press would dub her “The Massachusetts Borgia.”

How to Abolish Murder.

In 1869 H. H. Bingham, agent of the Michigan State Prison, issued a pamphlet analyzing the effect of Michigan’s abolition of the death penalty some twenty-two years earlier.  In place of hanging, Michigan sentenced capital offenders to solitary imprisonment for life (though the longest anyone actually stayed in solitary confinement was five years). Bingham concluded that, though the number of criminal convictions in Michigan increased during that period “…there is no evidence in the increased convictions that there is an increase of crime beyond the ratio of increase in population.” In fact, the number of convicted murderers, as a percentage of total convictions, actually decreased.

About five years later the information in the pamphlet was summarized in a number of mid-western newspapers. Bingham’s conclusions were greeted with a good deal of skepticism as illustrated by this sarcastic editorial in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette:

HOW TO ABOLISH MURDER.

A correspondent writing from Michigan says the abolition of capital punishment in that State has diminished the murder rate. What an anomaly is human nature! Persons inclined to murder find that in Michigan they can not enjoy the privilege of being hanged for it; so they resolve they won’t play. Probably they go off to other States where hanging is allowed, to do their business. We presume that equally trustworthy statistics would show that murder has increased in the adjoining States since Michigan abolished Hanging. If this diminution of the terror of the penalty for murder has diminished murder in Michigan, it follows logically and morally that if she should abolish all penalties, murder would cease entirely in that State for want of encouragement. There are persons of equal intelligence of human nature who think that if the common people are permitted to see a public hanging, they will incontinently be seized with a propensity to go and murder somebody in order to play a star part in so attractive a spectacle.
 

---

Sources:

Collections of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan. Lansing: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Company, 1907.

"How to Abolish Murder." Cincinnati Daily Gazette 15 Oct. 1875.

A Brutal Murder.

Little Murders

(From Sedalia Daily Democrat, Sedalia, Missouri, October 15, 1876)

A Brutal Murder.

 

A Quarrel Between Colored Secret Societies Results in a Hanging Scrape.

St Louis, Oct. 12—A special to the Globe-Democrat from Waco, Texas says: A most brutal murder was committed near this place two weeks ago, and the coroner’s jury to-day completed the investigation, which proves that a body of colored Masons had opposition from another secret clique, and the Masons were to have their Worshipful Master, a person named Jones, murdered by another negro named McCann. Therefore Jones conterplotted, and McCann was urged several times to come out of his hole at night, but refused till the night of the 30th, when he agreed, and a party of negroes numbering ten, among them Jones, met and murdered him as per the following sample of evidence, given by Alex. Cox, who turned state’s evidence.

A Contract with the Devil.

On April 16, 1897, cashier Joseph A. Stickney was murdered during a daring daylight robbery of the Great Falls National Bank in Somersworth, New Hampshire. The frenzied investigation that followed, crossed state and national borders resulting in the arrests of Joseph Kelley, a resident of Somersworth with peculiar habits. Joseph E. Kelley confessed to the murder, leaving the court to decide whether his actions were driven by a mental disorder, whether he was feigning mental disability, or whether Kelley had in fact made a contract with the devil.

Miss Fails in Court

Little Murders

This looks like a good one. I'll keep searching for more information.



(From Waterloo Courier, Waterloo, Iowa, December 15, 1897)

Miss Fails in Court

 

Murder in Second Degree

That is her Plea.—She Will Be Sentenced Saturday.—Kern Indicted for Murder.

 

Waverly, Dec. 10.— One chapter in the celebrated Kern murder  case was closed late yesterday afternoon, when Delilah Fails, supported by Mrs. Parrot, wife of Sheriff Parrott, staggered into the crowded court room, and through her attorney, E. L. Smalley, entered a plea of guilty to murder in the second degree.

August Hetzke.

Little Murders:

From Defenders and Offenders:

August Hetzke.

"This individual was convicted in Chicago, Ills., of murder in the first degree, he having beaten his little step-son to death. He was always most cruel to the child and on every opportunity treated him in an inhuman manner. The child’s suffering only seemed more to anger this brute, until at last he beat him to death. The case caused a great deal of excitement at the time in Chicago."

 

---

Defenders and offenders. New York: D. Buchner & Co., 1888.

“…cut off in her youthful bloom”

In August of 1810, four little girls picking berries at the foot of a precipice near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, discovered the broken body of a beautiful young woman.  She was identified as Polly Williams, last seen walking to White Rocks to meet her fiancé Philip Rogers. Though the mysteries of Polly Williams’s death have endured for two centuries, her story is neatly summarized the words engraved on her tombstone:

Behold with pity, you that pass by;
Here doth the bones of Polly Williams lie;
Who was cut off in her youthful bloom;
By a vile wretch, her pretended groom.

Three Iowa Murders.

Little Murders

Here are three little Iowa murders from the same edition of The Marion Sentinel:



(From The Marion Sentinel, Merion, Iowa, December 9, 1897)

Mrs. Behrens Found Guilty.

 

Davenport Woman Convicted of Killing her Husband.

Davenport, Dec. 2.—In the second trial of Mrs. Claus Behrens the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, fixing the penalty at life imprisonment at hard labor. This is the first instance in which a woman has been convicted of murder in the Second congressional district. The case has become celebrated, and has cost the county two trials, with another one following. The evidence showed that Mrs. Behrens administered paris green, causing her husband’s death in order to get his insurance and then marry Henry Brendt, who, it is alleged, gave her the poison. He will be tried next week.